Average At Best

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Happy 4th of July everyone! Today I thought I would share these awesome stars and stripes shorts made by my husband.

The Supplies

1. Bleach

2. Spray Adhesive

3. A small spray bottle

4. Scissors

5. An x-acto knife

6. Masking tape

7. Some sort of cardboard to use as a stencil

8. An old pair of shorts

Cut out a stencil of your stars in whatever pattern you want them to be in. Patrick did these free hand but we realized it would have been much easier to use one our son’s glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars as a guide.

Tape around the stars to prevent bleeding and lightly spray the back with a spray adhesive so your design will stay securely on your work surface.

Press your stencil onto the shorts and cover the opposite side so the bleach doesn’t mist over. We filled our spray bottle with half bleach and half water and sprayed our stars on.

Tape off the stripes for the other side and spray…

This is an easy, inexpensive way to turn an old pair of cutoffs into a festive 4th of July outfit. I hope you all have a great holiday! Enjoy the fireworks!

I was surprised to log into WordPress and see that Krissy of Moving Mommy had nominated me for a Liebster Award! How exciting! I did some research into the origins of the award and found that over the years there have been many different variations of the recognition but basically it is meant to bring traffic to new, up and coming blogs. How fantastic! As a new blogger, I can use all the help I can get. I tweaked this a little from the way I received it but the premise is the same…I will give you 5 facts about me, I will answer 5 questions posed by previous nominees and then I will pass the honor onto 5 other bloggers with under 200 followers. I normally don’t do ‘chain letter’ type things but I truly believe in the power of networking in the blogosphere. Yes, I just used the word blogosphere. So, here we go!

5 facts about me:

1. My husband and I hitchhiked through 10 states in the summer of 2011.

2. My family eats a mostly Paleo, gluten free diet.

3. My husband and I eloped and got married in Las Vegas.

4. I am an advocate of natural childbirth and I would like to become a midwife.

5. We went to Costa Rica on our honeymoon.

5 Questions:

Q: What musical artist are you listening to these days?

I’ve been listening to M83’s album “Saturdays=Youth” over and over again because my 5 week old son loves it and it puts him right to sleep.

Q: What do you say when your (or someone else’s) kid asks you why the sky is blue?

Because that’s the way we perceive it.

Q: If money were no object, where would you travel on your next vacation?

Australia. My husband lived there for a year as a child and I hope we are able to take our children there someday.

Q: What was your very first job?

Ha! I was a child actor in a live show in Branson, MO when I was ten years old. If you aren’t familiar with Branson then that probably won’t make any sense to you. If you are familiar with Branson then I’m sorry.

Q: At what age is your earliest memory?

When I was two years old, I developed ulcers in all the soft tissue of my digestive system. I was in the hospital for a week on a morphine drip. I remember bits and pieces of it like the ride to the hospital and being given a Sesame Street circus train toy.

And now for my nominees! I hope you will take a moment to give these blogs a look and show them some recognition for their hard work.

I’ve never liked greeting card holidays but this mother’s day is significant for me because, five weeks ago today, I gave birth to an amazingly beautiful baby boy. It’s insane to me how much he’s grown in these past few weeks and I am so thankful to have him in my life. My husband, Patrick, and I feel so privileged to call ourselves his parents.

This photo cluster cost about $5 to make. The frames were .25 cents each at a thrift store, the photos were ripped out of old anatomy textbooks and we got the postcards at my favorite shop in San Francisco.

This project was as easy as putting the pages in the frames, except for the center frame which was also exceedingly simple.

Patrick painted some pages he took out of an old book then mod podged them together.

Added a skeleton from the anatomy book for cohesiveness.

Then took these postcards and mod podged them on top of it all. (We love mod podge. Who doesn’t?)

Please read the about me section to learn a little more about who I am.

I hope you enjoy this lifestyle blog about a little of this and a little of that. I wanted to start this because I am nowhere close to perfect. I am a shit crafter, sometimes I burn dinner and I can neither afford or maintain expensive clothing. There are so many perfect blogs out there. Beautiful, amazing blogs that leave me in awe of the incredibly talented women who run them. But sometimes they leave me feeling…lacking. Does anyone else feel that way while browsing the lovely, glossy images of Pinterest? I think my home is cozy and inviting but it does NOT look like something out of a magazine and, I must confess, I don’t think I’ve ever changed my outfit because it had a stain on it.

I take it easy, try to learn as much as possible and have fun with my family and friends in our little Midwestern town. So no pressure here! Believe me, my skills will never leave you feeling inadequate. My husband and I jokingly half-jokingly say that our family motto is “Average at Best”. We’re too busy loving to worry about being perfect.